{"id":14515,"date":"2013-12-22T12:44:56","date_gmt":"2013-12-22T01:44:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/?p=14515"},"modified":"2013-12-22T12:00:56","modified_gmt":"2013-12-22T01:00:56","slug":"bishops-christmas-message","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/2013\/12\/22\/bishops-christmas-message\/","title":{"rendered":"Bishop&#8217;s Christmas Message 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>CHRISTMAS: CELEBRATING AND EMBRACING<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.4em\">Christmas: a time for celebrating and a time for embracing. \u00a0Christmas is a celebration of our <\/span><span style=\"line-height: 1.4em;text-decoration: underline\"><i>spirituality<\/i><\/span><span style=\"line-height: 1.4em\">: our awe and wonder at God born as a baby! \u00a0\u00a0Christmas celebrates our amazement that the Being who made us, our Creator, came as a fully human being to be with us, to communicate with us, to show us how to live life in all its fullness. This is the amazing good news of Christmas.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>How do we know that the baby is God? Consider the miracle of His virgin conception, His authority over sickness and death, His teaching, His authority over nature and evil spirits, His death and resurrection. Jesus\u2019 claims about His divinity were either those of a mad man, a bad man or a divine man who was both fully human &#8211; and God with us. Logically, He can never be considered just a \u201cgood man\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Christmas is a celebration of <span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><i>life in its fullness<\/i><\/span>:\u00a0 love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, self-control, friendship, forgiveness, generosity, achievements, and more!<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.4em\">Christmas is <\/span><i style=\"line-height: 1.4em\">a <span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">time for embracing<\/span><\/i><span style=\"line-height: 1.4em\"> these celebrations and embracing one another. \u00a0Christmas is a time for embracing healing; the healing of relationships and seeking forgiveness.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Christmas is a time to include those who are lonely; to include those who have suffered the loss of loved ones or the loss of employment; to include those who are struggling. Christmas is a time to care. \u00a0If we think about the street in which we live, who are the people who will not have somebody to eat their Christmas pudding with this year?\u00a0 Who won\u2019t even have a Christmas pudding?\u00a0 For those of us who are celebrating, let\u2019s invite them over to share.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s celebrate the birth of Jesus and embrace one another, especially those who are struggling.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Celebrate Christmas! Embrace one another!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>See <a href=\"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/2013\/12\/20\/christmas-conversation-1-we-are-valued\/\">Christmas Conversation: 1 We are valued<\/a>\u00a0 and \u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/2013\/12\/21\/christmas-conversation-2-the-just-judge\/\">2 The Just Judge Making Peace<\/a>\u00a0 and\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/2013\/12\/22\/christmas-conversation-3-thoughts-for-tasmania\/\">3 Christmas Thoughts for Tasmania<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CHRISTMAS: CELEBRATING AND EMBRACING Christmas: a time for celebrating and a time for embracing. \u00a0Christmas is a celebration of our spirituality: our awe and wonder at God born as a baby! \u00a0\u00a0Christmas celebrates our amazement that the Being who made &hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/2013\/12\/22\/bishops-christmas-message\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14515"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14515"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14609,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14515\/revisions\/14609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}